Unicut secures two year contract

A £700,000, two year contract to supply 31 different components has been won by Unicut Precision that will involve the company in agreed vendor managed stocking techniques in order to meet three day ‘delivery to line' demands.

Said joint managing director Jason Nicholson: “This type of contract has not only helped to create a very positive order book for 2010, but more importantly, we have a long term production commitment. This means we can afford to optimise the machining methods with special machine options for our Citizen CNC sliding head and Miyano turn/mill centres and will be able to focus on productive tooling solutions which work to the benefit of the customer as well as ourselves.”

The long term contract follows another order won in December for 5,000 assemblies a year involving the machining of 11 components, the supply of 10 bought in items and special processes with the inclusion of assembly, test and packaging. In November Unicut also won an important new long term contract to supply a range of 17 specialist connectors for undersea sensor assemblies in batches that range between 100 and 200 parts.

Added joint managing director Charles Kenny: “Our continuous investment programme is now really paying off in a difficult subcontract market. It certainly helped through 2009 with almost 90 different customers placing business with us and leading to 40% of production being exported. In particular, we have scored following a move by customers to benchmark suppliers when investigating potential suppliers for major projects.”

The two year contract involves a whole range of parts up to 64mm diameter that will be produced on the Citizen and Miyano machines installed in the works. It also includes operations to create sub-assemblies that will be carried out in the recently built clean room area within the machine shop.

While some parts are relatively straightforward, others require complex turn/mill cycles involving meeting requirements of up to 50 dimensions that also require inspection and monitoring using SPC techniques. Materials include stainless and mild steel, aluminium and brass with certain parts requiring grinding, heat treatment and plating as part of Unicut's responsibility.

As part of the contract Unicut will also take responsibility for maintaining maximum and minimum stock levels to achieve the minimum call off demands by the customer against fixed price supply.

Mr Nicholson concluded: “During quarter one of 2010 we will also be working closely with the customer on design for production which should lead to the contracts being expanded throughout the year with new components. This could also involve further investment in plant and equipment, management systems and additional skilled machine setters.”

Unicut
www.unicutprecision.com